Husky Football Blog

We've been a little lax in getting a projected depth chart ready for next season.

But here goes our best attempt, beginning with the offense and including a brief overview of each spot.

UPDATE --- Realizing I made this confusing as I was attempting to do just a two-deep except at those spots where I see especially intenese competition (RB, TE) or QB, which is obivously the most important position so I felt it worth pointing out everybody. But I'll add a few players to the original roster since I've gotten a few e-mails from people wondering why I left certain people out. I'm now going to take out all incoming frosh (other than those that should be arriving in the spring) since I seem to have created confusion by including a couple earlier and not making my parameters on this clearer. Think of this as a spring depth chart.

QUARTERBACK:Jake Locker, So.Ronnie Fouch, RFr.Taylor Bean, RFr.

COMMENT: Maybe the most secure position at the top, and the most uncertain below it. By all reports, Fouch had a solid redshirt season. Still, that's a big dropoff from a player of Locker's stature to a freshman who has never played, so it will likely need little saying that keeping Locker healthy will be a huge key to next season.

COMMENT: One of the big positions to watch in the spring as the Huskies look for a replacement for Louis Rankin. Johnson had some good moments. But he is a different kind of runner than Rankin, unlikely to be quite the same kind of breakaway threat --- his yards per carry average was 3.8 compared to Rankin's 5.6. Maybe that will come with experience. After that, the only experience is the six carries Hasty got early in the year --- he never got another carry after quitting the team briefly. One would think that Hasty either makes a niche for himself this spring or may never create one at all. Griffin redshirted this year but coaches seemed happy with his progress. There will be lots of other candidates here in the fall, and a possible wildcard is Chris Polk, who will arrive in time for spring ball and may get a look at running back though he is coming here to play receiver first. Brandon Yakaboski was having a decent camp until he was hurt.

FULLBACKPaul Homer, Jr.Luke Kravitz, Sr.

COMMENT: One of the most solid positions on the team. A question for the spring will be determining a position for Austin Sylvester, who dabbled here a bit this year when Kravitz was injured.

COMMENT: I'm sure a lot of you will ask why I don't have Izbicki and Kavario Middleton 1-2 here. But while they are each talented prospects, and it's fun to get excited about the new guys, those are still big leaps to make, especially for Middleton just coming in from high school. Still, if there is ever a time when the team will look at new blood at this spot, it's now, given the disappointing production last season and the seeming lack of progression from one year to the next (the changes in offensive scheme haven't helped, either). The wildcard here is in who gets named as the coach --- hard to get a complete read on it until a new coach comes in and has a spring to work with these guys. There have been rumors about Kirton moving to defense so we'll see.

COMMENT: This might have been the most improved position on the team this season, and there are essentially five starters returning --- Habben started four games and played regularly in all of them. Early conjecture is that he'll move to RT to take the place of the graduated Chad Macklin, the only significant loss at this spot. But once again, experienced depth is a concern as only White-Frisbee of any of the reserves listed has played significantly (Sedillo saw some brief action, including a memorable one-play injury replacement for Garcia when UW scored against USC.) Guessing a little on the backups at tackle but coaches said late in the year that both of those players (Armelin and Fancher) were working at both tackle spots. That figures to be something that gets worked out in the spring. Shugert was said to be one of the stars of the Scout Bowl during the bye week and he could make a quick move up the depth at guard. Rosborough wasn't on the two-deep by the end of the year, having fallen to third-string behind Sedillo at RG (Sedillo was listed as the backup at both G and C but).

COMMENT: Maybe the most intriguing position on the team. There's lots of young talent here, and even more coming in the fall. But for all the excitement over the fresh faces, reality is that the Huskies will have one of the most inexperienced receiving corps in the nation next season with just a combined 11 catches among its returnees ---- six by Goodwin and five by Shaw. Really hard to get a read on any of the new guys quite yet --- as good a prospects as many of them seem to be, none seem to be of the Reggie Williams-type to make a certain immediate impact. That 2001 class is a good example of the unpredictability of freshmen. UW brought in two of the most highly-touted WRs in the country --- Williams responded by setting a school record for catches by a frosh with 55 while the other, Charles Frederick, didn't make a single catch the entire season. With the depth issues, walk-ons such as Hawkins and Chidiac could have a chance to earn some real time (Hawkins was put on scholarship midway through last season but those were one-year awards so we'll have to see if he's a walk-on or scholarship guy this year).